When would you let your kids get a Facebook account?

My 12 year old GD has an account and this is checked by her mother. Her parents know the password. She also has me as a friend and her mother says that she limits the time on FB to weekends and it is not for any long time. I don't have any grouse about this as she is monitored and also has been told of all dangers. Actually, she set up my account and was giving me advice

Not until they're 40. Just kidding of course. I'm not a fan of Facebook because it's too unsecure half the time. You need to keep up with the privacy settings constantly as they change, and sometimes without you even knowing it. I'd say you're doing a good job and that's about all you can do for now. As long as you keep tabs on what they're doing and keep up with all the changes, I'd say probably 8-10 would be ok as long as their homework and chores are done. If my kids were that young, I would set up the same rules you have..sounds fair and safe.

My daughter didn't have a facebook account until she was in high school. Before that it was a myspace account. Yeah she had one around 13 but I had all her information. Thankfully my daughter doesn't keep much from me. As long as you watch over what your kid does it doesn't really matter. But they also need to be able to be mature enough to handle what's out there. I've seen people like a page and from then on they get nasty things. And sometimes if their friends like those pages they get posted to other friends walls. It can be a mess sometimes

For me some of these issues totally depend on how mature the kids are...my gtanddaughter has one and just got it when she was 12.....she isn't on it alot but it's nice to be able to post something to her also....just to make her feel special...I live so far away it's nice. Most of my family communicates through facebook posting photos etc. If you feel they can handle it then let them.

My eldest has a FB account but I have similar rules to yourself. I have his password (I can't actually remember it, but he doesn't know that!) and he's on my friends list. He doesn't use his 'real' name and he is banned from mentioning his school or other personal information or including photos of himself or the family. He is also banned from mentioning any family relationship with me, as that could lead someone to linking him to our 'business' website. I once had to have a word with him about loading a profile picture which included swear words, but other than that it's all run smoothly. He uses it more for games than anything else, but I'm aware that I've less control over his access now that he has a smartphone.

I do not have kids but i have a 9 yr old niece who has had a face book account since she was 6. Both her parents have her password and are on her friends list as well. They have it blocked to where only friends on her list can see her info. Yes my sister has gone on niece's facebook account before mostly to help in her games she plays but she does look and see whats going on with her daughter on facebook. Also my niece isn't allowed to plat certain games where you can chat with and be friends with people from all over the world such as farmtown. I think you can have a facebook page at any age just as long as you are very careful with it and watch what your kids on on it. My niece isn't even allowed on the computer without asking her parents first.

My son got one at 10. My daughter is only 6 and she has one. She only uses it to play the games she saw me playing. I have both of their passwords and I am on their friends lists. My son knows I can check on what he is doing at any time.

I don't think a child should have facebook. What for? In the first place if they don't even know how to use a laptop or computer then chances are it is the parent who would manage the child's account. But what for? To publish all his/her photos? Well... I think there are more important things to be done for a child. This is just my own opinion. I have nothing against those who think otherwise though. To each his own.

My oldest is going to be 15 in a few months and he does not have one. He asked for one about a year ago and we said no but I think if he were to ask now we would let him. I agree with making sure I would have full access to his account. He is in high school now and you would think he would really want one now but he hasn't asked. I think being a boy also helps because my daughter is almost 13 and she would do anything for an account.

I know that the actual rules of use for facebook state that a person has to be 13 years old before they are allowed to have their own facebook account. However, I did allow my daughter to get her facebook account when she was eight years old. The reason that I allowed her to is because of the fact that a few of her friends in the neighborhood did already have facebook accounts and also because of the fact that she wanted to play some of the games with me. Paul is six years old now and I haven't even began to consider allowing him to have a facebook account of his own. He has at least a couple more years to wait.

My son got his Facebook account when he was around 12 years old. Like many of the other parents that replied,I had his password and was on his friend's list. When allowing him to get a Facebook account it was on the condition that I would check it regularly. Fortunately, I have an extremely honest relationship with my son, who is now 21, and never had any issues with trying to hide stuff from me.

My ten year old has an account and I will be opening one for my 5 year old soon. Until they are 18 they have to be our friends and I have to have their passwords so I can check their accounts.

In my opinion, I think I'm going to allow my children to have Facebook account as early as 7 years old. However, before my children reaches twelve, I shall be monitoring what they do with Facebook and be advising them on what they do. This is some precaution to avoid them from misusing the social network or falling to certain scams and fraud. My friend's daughter who is now 12 is only using Facebook to post photos and like. She doesn't talk much in Facebook.

First of all, Facebook in their guidelines prohibit people under 13 to join (I work on translating Fb-themed articles, so I know a bit about it). Exactly for safety reasons. They can't decide on their own whether what they are posting is appropriate or legal or polite enough or safe enough. I wouldn't really like to. After 13, I would let them have an account, and I would not ask for their passwords or login instead of them, that would be a sign of mistrust, and I don't want them to see me as someone who is really controlling. I would rather teach them years in advance what to post and what not to post on Fb, who to accept as friends, what kind of messages not to care about, and that if they are unsure about something, they should show it to me. I would tell them stories about what teens who didn't use Facebook probably ended like (bullying because of uploaded scantily-clad photos, giving their data out to strangers, giving their account data to phishing schemes etc.). Oh, and I would be a friend to them and check on their account (but not from within the account). Oh, and I won't let them be on Facebook 24/7, because that's killing their vocabulary and social interactions and health.

My oldest son is 17 years old and he does not wish to have a Face Book account. If he had wanted to from 14 years old I would have let him. From age 14 to age 18 I would have kept an idea of what he was writing and the friends he had on there. Around eighteen months ago I went to an Internet Safety course at my 5 year old son's school. The man running that showed how Face Book had changed with its privacy settings. I am an adult and so are my friends. One friend of mine had his Face Book password stolen. Then he had money go from his bank account. This made me worried about someone doing that to me. I made my Face Book password long and hard for someone to find out. It is long and hard to enter. I forget some of my other passwords.

Its more about their ability to handle the account responsibly than it is about age. Isn't the minimum requirement 13? Well, for some you may have to wait til their grown. If they can't obey your rules or properly follow basic internet safety guidelines, they don't need to be on there.

I think a child should be 13 to have a Facebook account. The world has become risky and dangerous. I would certainly be vigilant about monitoring my child's activity on Facebook.

My son is turning 13 in a few months, and he's had a facebook account for more than a year. I remember laying down rules for the account. Like you, I didn't want him to add anybody that I didn't know. But my son isn't into socializing too much. So he's FB account has really been neglected. I don't think he's been into it for weeks. So, I guess it's a good thing! That he knows about it, and isn't too crazy posting status and everything in there. But who knows, maybe in a few months, when he gets into girls, it may get active again.

I think kids should get their Facebook accounts when they reach about 12. years old. Younger kids should enjoy their childhood not join in all social sites which is near us. In my country we have similar site to Facebook and there are joined kids who are about 3 - 4 years old. I really don't like this, but if they parents allow it what we can do? I like rules what you use and probably if i would have kids who would want to join in Facebook I would do the same.

If I had my own kids I might allow them to have a facebook account when they reach 13, officially a teenager (that's if FB is still the in thing by the time I have kids). I think kids should meet and enjoy the world around them while they can as a kid. The internet will always be there but the environment in which they should grow and learn will change eventually. Wasting their time in social networking sites when they're still young is not helpful with their development. I'm no expert but I want my kids to be sociable in person and not just in the Facebook world.